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FEATURE STORIES
by Kathy Cabrera
On April 23, also known as William Shakespeare’s birthday, the English-Speaking Union Shakespeare Competition was held in New York City. Liz Hix, senior, represented the Kansas City branch at that competition against 57 other competitors.
First, Hix had to win the school competition, which happened in December. After that Hix, went on to compete in the branch competition on Feb. 26.
The semi-finals were held in New York. About seven to 10 competitors are chosen for the final round of the competition. Finals are held later the same day. These students performed their selections along with a cold reading for a group of judges.
The competition was inside of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. All 58 participants were split into groups of about 20. They were required to watch each other perform their monologues and sonnets. The students were responsible for preparing the pieces that they performed in front of their group.
Hix chose to perform Viola’s monologue from “Twelfth Night.” “I chose it because it was interesting and fun. It’s also the part that I am in the play coming up,” Hix said.
The sonnet that she did, “Sonnet 147”, was well written and contrasted her monologue. “I liked my sonnet because it wasn’t just dramatic, which is what most girls choose to do; it was unique,” Hix said.
Her favorite performance was from a guy in her group that did Bottom’s monologue from “Midsummer’s Night Dream.” “It was hilarious!” Hix said. “I learned a lot of great acting techniques and what makes a person a better actor in Shakespeare.”
But the competition wasn’t just all work. The students got to have lunch at the prestigious performing arts school, Julliard. And Hix and her family took advantage of the weekend before the competition and took a walking tour of the whole city.
“My favorite part was being able to watch all the competitors. They are the top of the nation so they were fantastic! I learned a lot from them,” Hix said.
The purpose of this annual competition is keeping the work of William Shakespeare alive, especially in high school where it seems no one is really interested in or likes learning about this classic writer that has greatly influenced society. “The competition is something that I’ll remember for the rest of my life,” Hix said. “I’m glad to have had the opportunity to be part of a highly prestigious competition.”
“Personally, I think I did well. I got a lot of laughs from the audience,” Hix said.
by Kathy Cabrera
Hair extensions might be more common than some people may think. Lots of girls now wear hair extensions rather than their natural hair.
Buying hair extensions can be costly, ranging anywhere from $90-$130. And they’re bought according to the length and color that a person desires. If the person doesn’t like how they look, they can cut or dye them to match their hair better, according to Emily Pelger, junior. But this can generally only be done to hair extensions that are made of real human hair.
Most girls wear them because they want long hair. “Thicker, longer hair is prettier,” Regan Dowling, freshman, said.
Camryn Webster, freshman agrees because she can do so much more with it.
“I wear them all the time, every day. It gives me the long hair that I’ve always wanted” DeAun Myers, freshman, said. Extensions are an easy alternative because a person doesn’t have to wait a long time to grow long hair. All a person has to do is clip in as much as she wants.
For the kind of person who likes to change her look constantly, extensions allow that. One day she could have long hair, possibly in an interesting color, and the next day she could have something completely different.
Several girls also like to wear hair extensions because they allow them to do more than they could if they only had their short hair. They can curl, wave and straighten it however they want, as if it were their real hair.
So, while lots of girls choose to wear them all day, every day, others opt out. The main reason is that extensions put stress on a person’s natural hair. “They can be a pain. Your hair is being pulled on and sometimes your head aches,” Pelger said. Hair breakage and damage is pretty common in people who are wearing extensions.
Another thing to take into consideration is that extensions have to be taken really good care of. “You have to keep them clean and wash them and make sure that the clips don’t fall off,” Cassie Otte, sophomore, said.
Getting the kind of hair that a girl wants faster is the great thing about extensions. Just keep in mind that, like anything else in beauty, it takes effort.
by Rachel Jenkins
What better way to donate to a charity than to donate your own hair? Organizations like Locks of Love and Pantene make it possible.
Locks of Love is a organization that is “dedicated to helping children with medical hair loss regain self-esteem and confidence by utilizing hair donations to provide high quality, custom hairpieces,” said Lauren Kukkamaa, communications director for Locks.
The pieces help many kids to return to normal life and allow them to do many activities like “playing sports, swimming, sleepovers” that they may have stopped enjoying.
Locks helps kids not only with cancer, but other diseases like alopecia, a disorder that causes hair follicles to shut down. Hair prostheses vary in cost from $3,500-6,000.
It takes at least six ponytails to make one wig, so the need for donations is great to match the children’s requests. The recipients can choose the hair color, length and style of the wig and the skin tone of the silicon base.
Where Locks’ minimum ponytail length is at least 10 inches, Pantene Beautiful Lengths, a partnership with the American Cancer Society, allows eight inches or more.
Beautiful Lengths’ undertaking is to help women suffering from cancer go back to feeling and looking healthy again.
The foundation accepts only hair free of color, bleach or other chemical treatments; “virgin hair” is preferred. Locks will take dyed hair only if it isn’t colored over bleached hair.
To donate at home, hair should be put into a ponytail or braid at the nape of the neck before being cut above the band holding hair so that the hair stays in a ponytail after the cut. Then ponytail should be placed in a plastic or zip-locked bag and mailed to the chosen foundation.
Hair can be donated at a barber or salon if it is a participating shop and the client requests it. Kaitlyn Enochs, senior, donated to Locks when she was 13 after her mother was diagnosed with cancer. She donated a full 14 inches.
“Seeing her lose her hair and then getting a wig, it made me want to donate my hair for someone else,” Enochs said.
To date, Locks has helped over 3,000 children and Beautiful Lengths has donated 18,000 free real-hair wigs to the American Cancer Society wig banks, which delivers wigs to cancer patients across the country.
by Laiken Yerby
Hairstyles have infinite variety: long, short, curly, wavy, straight, dyed, permed, braided, teased, and weaved. Then there’s really short hair or even no hair.
Mike Jasiczek, social studies teacher, has a story of his own. “I had hair until 1997. I was working continuously while participating in football; I eventually got sick of my hair and shaved it off,” Jasiczek said.
Michael Allen, English teacher, lightheartedly said “always has been bald. It was so disturbing when I was hairless in third grade. I’m bald just because I wanted it to happen. What made me do it goes way back, but one day I asked myself the ultimate question: should I be bald, I said yes.”
This style choice has numerous ups to it with rare downs.
“My hair will never turn gray, I save on shampoo, hats fit better, and when I was single at that time, I had a lot more dates after I shaved it,” Jasiczek said.
Jasiczek believes that the only downfall was that he would sometimes cut his head while shaving and his first sunburn was “terrible.”
Colby Gottschalk, sophomore, believes the best thing about having short hair is “it makes me more aerodynamic.”
However, for Allen, the best thing about being hair-free is he doesn’t have to use a blow dryer.
“I also enjoy the cool breeze on a hot summer day,” Allen said.
Many would think that having hardly any hair would require no keep up at all, but it does.
“I have to shave every few days to take care of it, I actually have this lotion that I use when I want my head to shine. I only use it when I want to sparkle though,” Jasiczek said.
When it comes to hair, everyone has his own style, shaved and bald being one of them.
by Katlyn Bullard
Katherine Chin, sophomore, received a letter from “Elementia” the literary magazine giving Chin the news that her essay Hero of My Life “was going to be published.” Hero of My Life started out as 25 points of extra credit for her English class.
“Hero of My Life” is about Chin’s great uncle Felix and how he has inspired her by “ how he was able to care for other people.”
Her Uncle Felix has taught her to “work hard so [she] can achieve things in life.”
Felix “learned to take what life gave him, and to always look on the bright side of things.” Chin’s uncle changed her life and the way she thinks about it.
“To me, Uncle Felix’s life is the story of a hero, and he is the model of what I aspire to become,” Chin said.
She chose her great uncle because she has known him most her life and because of the way he acts toward people no matter their background and who they are and what they do.
Cindy Roth, English teacher, has extra credit opportunities one option was the “Hero Of My Life” essay.
Chin just did it for that purpose of it being extra credit but ended up having it published in “Elementia” Literary Magazine.
Felix now lives in Shinzhu, Taiwan, and comes to visit two to three times a year.
He inspires Chin to help others, to not be selfish, to do well in school so she can go to a good college and get a good job, not to judge people and to just be more friendly.
Chin is happy that her essay is being published, but she is definitely surprised that it is.
“To me, Uncle Felix’s life is the story of a hero and he is the model of what I aspire to become”
by Samantha Hansen
After eight years of high school and college combined, one person still cannot get enough schooling.
Tian Tian Cai, an Olathe South graduate, is the executive assistant to the CEO of a non-profit alternate math education program, Reasoning Mind.
Reasoning Mind is an online math program for elementary school students. It also trains and supports teachers who are working with the program. The program mainly focuses on helping children from economically disadvantaged families, but is available to all children including home-schooled kids.
She had some ideas of what she wanted to do in life while still in high school and into college. She graduated from the University of Chicago with a B.A. in anthropology. She volunteered throughout her college education as a health teacher in an inner city school, teaching high school freshmen that were greatly lacking in their comprehensive health education. Before this experience she had always ruled out teaching as a career for herself.
“I was able to see first hand the terrible inequalities in our education system,” Cai said. “The more I saw, the more I wanted to know, and the more I found out, the more I wanted to do.”
She heard about Reasoning Mind through a friend, received a recruitment email from the company and has worked there since.
“The best part of my job is knowing that what we are doing could change a child’s life,” Cai said.
She sees herself continuing to work for non-profit work or public service.
Her advice to high school students who are undecided about what they want to do in life is to sit in on as many different classes as possible. She recommends taking classes that are challenging in high school and out of a student’s comfort zone and getting involved in activities that interest the student.
“High school is also a good time to explore a different language or other interests that may lead to something more when you graduate,” Cai said.
If the student already has a good idea of what they want to do, she recommends finding out the type of major they need to acquire to be in that job field as well as looking into minor degrees or double majors which can give that person an advantage in the field.
“Follow your interests both academically and outside the classroom, but keep your life goals in mind,” Cai said. “Find out what you’re good at.”
She also recommends not bouncing from one job to another.
“You can develop a strong work ethic and show future employers that you are dependable,” Cai said. |
